1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic information services and electronic commerce services. More specifically, the invention relates to providing easy navigation to facilitate access to such services.
2. Background
The advent of the Internet has made a vast amount of information available to a significant segment of the population. Even so, over 150 million people in the U.S. do not use the Internet, including 80% of people over 45 and 89% of people over 55. There are currently over 800 million pages of information spread over 3 million information servers on the Internet. The vast majority of this information is commercial in nature, making up 83% of the content. Of the remaining 17%, the majority is scientific or educational. This would tend to indicate that if one does not have access to these growing resources, then one is at a definite disadvantage.
While user interfaces are vastly more user-friendly now than in the days of character-based terminals, such as DOS, the current Internet navigation systems are still too cumbersome and require too much specialized knowledge for many people to use effectively. There are too many protocols, too many standards, and too many methods for performing seemingly simple tasks. Just the act of setting up a computer with a minimal configuration is challenging and complex, so much so that many people will not gain access to the vast array of services available over the Internet. Technology generally evokes fear particularly among the older generation and the poor, who have had little or no exposure to it. The net effect of this fear combined with cost factors has been to deny access to this large and growing segment of the population.
At this stage, electronic information services and electronic commerce services have reached the point of mass momentum. Unfortunately, those that cannot access these products and services are being disenfranchised due to technical capabilities, age, and/or socioeconomic status.